{"id":"SASIA-008","label":"Oraon Ranchi dormitory bullroarer emblem","people_or_site":"Oraon / Kurukh","country_current":"India","historic_region":"Chota Nagpur / Ranchi","macroregion":"South Asia / East India","local_name":"kher-chukna (dormitory strings, \"foot-scrapers\"); bhurka (toy)","source_term":"bull-roarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A perforated slat of wood or bamboo, holed at one end, hung in the youth dormitory.","function_summary":"Kept in bachelors' dormitories and hung above festival dancing grounds for decoration and wind-driven rattling; Roy interpreted the display as protection against spirits.","attestation_type":"secondary_catalog","source_key":"ROY1928_ORAON_RELIGION_CUSTOMS","source_type":"primary_ethnography","source_url":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215147","page_or_plate":"Roy summary, Man in India vol. 7 printed pp. 63-64 | Roy 1928, pp. 62-63 and plates; Elwin 1947, p. 293","map_confidence":"medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Ranchi/Chota Nagpur regional anchor for Oraon dormitory evidence","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"Rows of bamboo blades hung from the beams of the bachelors’ dormitory. On festival days they were taken out and strung above the dancing ground, where breezes shook them into a rattling decoration. Some instruments were made from the valves of silk-cotton seed pods. The blades were carefully treasured in the dormitory; women were forbidden to enter. Villagers explained the festival display through its beauty and sound. Roy suggested another purpose: frightening away the dead who wanted to join the dance by entering a living dancer.","pull_quote":"Hundreds of thin slats of bamboo threaded in strings are to be seen hanging in rows from the beams of some of the Oraon Bachelors' dormitories, where it is a sin for women to enter.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Summary of S. C. Roy, \"The Bull-Roarer in India,\" Man in India, vol. 7 (1927), p. 63","term_gloss":"","cls":"restricted","class_label":"Restricted","color":"#A43C2F","is_candidate":false,"flags":["initiation","women_taboo"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":true,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"etymology":"kher-chukna, \"foot-scrapers,\" is the Oraon name for the strings of bull-roarer slats hung in the bachelors' dormitory; the toy form is called bhurka.","literal_gloss":"foot-scrapers","semantic_cluster":"object_name; dormitory","etymology_confidence":"high","sources":[{"citation":"Sarat Chandra Roy, 'The Bull-Roarer in India,' Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 13(1) (1927): 54-61; summarized in Man in India 7 (1927), pp. 63-64; Sarat Chandra Roy, Oraon Religion and Customs (Ranchi, 1928), pp. 62-63; Verrier Elwin, The Muria and their Ghotul (1947), p. 293","url":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215147"}],"source_citations":"Sarat Chandra Roy, 'The Bull-Roarer in India,' Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 13(1) (1927): 54-61; summarized in Man in India 7 (1927), pp. 63-64; Sarat Chandra Roy, Oraon Religion and Customs (Ranchi, 1928), pp. 62-63; Verrier Elwin, The Muria and their Ghotul (1947), p. 293","source_display":"Sarat Chandra Roy, 'The Bull-Roarer in India,' Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 13(1) (1927): 54-61; summarized in Man in India 7 (1927), pp. 63-64; Sarat Chandra Roy, Oraon Religion and Customs (Ranchi, 1928), pp. 62-63; Verrier Elwin, The Muria and their Ghotul (1947), p. 293","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A perforated slat of wood or bamboo, holed at one end, hung in the youth dormitory.","function_display":"Kept in bachelors' dormitories and hung above festival dancing grounds for decoration and wind-driven rattling; Roy interpreted the display as protection against spirits.","confidence_display":"medium","attestation_label":"secondary catalog","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"oraon","display_name":"Oraon Ranchi dormitory bullroarer emblem","image":{"full":"assets/objects/SASIA-008_roy1928_ill16.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/SASIA-008_roy1928_ill16_thumb.jpg","alt":"Roy’s black-and-white photograph of Oraon bull-roarers in several sizes, hanging from a beam with three larger examples suspended below.","credit":"S. C. Roy, Oraon Religion and Customs (1928), illustration 16","license":"Public domain (published 1928)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.215147","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"Roy's own photograph of Oraon bull-roarers of three sizes."},"slug":"sasia-008-oraon-kurukh"}